$100 in 1993 is worth $131 in 2004,
because prices increased 30.7% over that period, an average of
2.47% a year.
$100 in 1993 has
the same buying power as
$131
in 2004
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
30.7%
Average inflation rate
2.47% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$131
Price difference ($100 base)
$30.73
CPI in 1993
144.5
CPI in 2004
188.9
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
Inflation in 2004
2.66%
$100 in 1993 → 2004
$131
$100 in 2004 → 1993
$76.50
What happened to prices between 1993 and 2004
Between 1993 and 2004, the Consumer Price Index went from 144.5 to 188.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 30.7%, which works out to an average of
2.47% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1993 bought what
$0.76 buys in 2004: the 1993 dollar
lost 23.5% of its purchasing power over
these 11 years.
By 1993, the median household earned about $31,200, gas averaged $1.11 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $126,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, holding close to where it had settled
the year before as the recovery slowly gathered strength. Washington spent much of the year on
two pieces of unfinished business from the recession: a deficit-reduction package, the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act, that raised the top income tax rate to 39.6% to start narrowing a
budget gap left over from the 1980s, and a trade deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
that President Clinton signed into law in December after a contentious fight in Congress. NAFTA
phased out most tariffs between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and took effect the following
January. The year’s other defining event had nothing to do with the economy: in February, a bomb
exploded in the World Trade Center’s parking garage, killing six people and injuring more than a
thousand. By year’s end, the pieces of the decade’s later economic story, freer trade, a
shrinking deficit, and inflation holding near 3%, were already in place.
Every 1993 amount converts to 2004 at the same ratio, 1.31: $1,000 becomes
$1,307, and $10,000 becomes $13,073.
Amount in 1993
Value in 2004
$1.00
$1.31
$5.00
$6.54
$10.00
$13.07
$20.00
$26.15
$50.00
$65.36
$100
$131
$500
$654
$1,000
$1,307
$5,000
$6,536
$10,000
$13,073
$100,000
$130,727
$1,000,000
$1,307,266
Inflation by spending category, 1993–2004
Between 1993 and 2004, medical care rose the most, up 54.0%, while apparel fell 9.9%, against 30.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1993
spending costs in 2004, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1993 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.47%
$131
Medical care
4.00%
$154
Energy
3.45%
$145
Housing
2.71%
$134
Food
2.57%
$132
Education & communication
2.45%
$131
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.35%
$129
Transportation
2.05%
$125
Recreation
1.65%
$120
Apparel
-0.95%
$90.05
Decade by decade: 1993 to 2004
Prices climbed fastest in the 1990s, averaging 2.54% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.34% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1993–2004 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1993, at end
1993–2000
2.54%
19.2%
$119
2000–2004
2.34%
9.7%
$131
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1993
$100 from 1993 had already become $113 by
1998, on its way to $131 in 2004; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 3.4% in 2000, and the smallest rise was 1.6% in 1998.
In 2004, prices rose 2.7% and $100 from 1993 had the buying
power of $131; the year's average CPI of 188.9 is the level
behind every 2004 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.7% in 2004, with a 29-cent jump in the price of gasoline, to $1.88 a
gallon, doing much of the work. Crude oil passed $50 a barrel in October on rising demand
from China and India. The Federal Reserve raised rates for the first time in four years on
June 30, to 1.25%, and it kept going: 17 consecutive quarter-point increases took the rate to
5.25% by June 2006. Housing was already running ahead of incomes. The median household earned
about $44,300, up 2.3% from 2003, while the median new home sold for $221,000, up about 13%. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15, unchanged since
1997.
MLA: “Inflation from 1993 to 2004: $100 is worth $131 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1993-to-2004/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1993 to 2004. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1993-to-2004/